Two stories half a world apart.

But boy are they profound in that it shows, to me at least, how assimilation of Indigenousness peoples has gone so wrong for so many.

And we still have leaders, both in the dominant societies and Indigenous societies, who are gung ho on speeding assimilation up, John Howard in Australia for one, Stephen Harper of Canada for two, if given half the chance.

The Atkins series should be read by all. I have seen first hand the situation in both countries; I’m convinced that looking back is the real way forward for most people.

Things a quite relatively speaking here of late, one the surface that is. Things are also quite on the surface on the issue of dealing with the situation of violence from within. The Nunatsiavut Government has yet to table its report on the ‘hearings on alcohol and drug abuse’. We are told the report will be tabled next sitting, 12 December in Hopedale.

Like most things, the problem of abuse of all types has been around for decades, or rather generations in some cases. It is not and will not be easy to break away from ingrained habits, but I believe that with the correct leadership, appropriate encouragement and penalties, things can change.

Kudos to Lavinia for speaking her mind to the reporter. Many women have spoken out in the past, and will in the future, it remains to be seen if they will be listened to.

http://www.thestar.com/atkins Heading "Inuit women raise battle cry".


Utopia – a place where Aborigines live long and prosper.
From Bernard Lagan in Utopia, Northern Territory.
Times OnlineNovember 13, 2006

HIDDEN off a long, lonely dirt road in the centre of Australia, the scattered Aboriginal settlements of weathered iron shanties, upturned cars and sullen dogs might be expected to fit the usual description: degradation, disease, filth. But they don't. Researchers have found such clear indicators of the wellbeing of the people of Utopia — a 1,160 square mile (3,000 sq km) former cattle station in the red desert dust north of Alice Springs — that policy-makers are having to reconsider the worth of an ancient Aboriginal way of life that rejects much of comfortably off Australia's eating, working and leisure habits. Yet those healthy traditions may be under threat. Ministers in the Howard Government have declared small Aboriginal communities to be unsustainable and argued for their closure and the removal of inhabitants to enlarged townships. There, they suggest, better services could be provided. The argument does not impress Karm Saraswati, the doctor who for 15 years, together with two nurses, has criss-crossed the desert taking aid to the thousand or so inhabitants. In Utopia's 16 tiny settlements — known as outstations — infants are fed the blood of kangaroos hunted by their relatives. Old women catch and cook big goanna lizards. People wander the spinifex grasses and dig out succulent honey ants and witchetty grubs for eating. Women make batches of Aboriginal medicines from desert plants, relying on ancestral recipes. Not many people smoke, and only a few drink. Many in Utopia spend the bakingly hot days in rough shelters, alongside dogs. Houses are often crowded and dirty. Most struggle to pay for food and petrol from the single store. Yet these people are 40% less likely to die prematurely than other Aboriginals in the Northern Territory. According to researchers at the University of Melbourne, their health approaches — and even exceeds in crucial respects — that of white Australians long expected to outlive Aborigines by 15 to 20 years. The most remarkable result is for cardiovascular disease. Rates of hospitalisation for its effects in Utopia are below levels among the non-Aboriginal Australian population. Lennie Jones, a senior elder, is certain of the source of his community's health: "Out here, we live on bush tucker. Old fellows and kids still hunt. We don't have white tucker." Another, Albert Bailey, whose 76 years represent longevity unusual among Aborigines, says: "In the big communities the young fellows get on the grog all the time. Here we stop 'em. We stay on the land of our grandfathers, always." Dr Saraswati feels no need to lecture these people. He accepts the wisdom of the old men and does as they ask — especially that he and the nurses travel the jarring desert tracks to take medicine to people, rather than wait for them to come into the clinic. While he accepts that his contact with Utopia's people has aided their wellbeing, it cannot explain, he says, the vast differences in their health and contentment from that of Aborigines elsewhere. It is, he says, a result of traditional lives that involve frequent exercise to hunt and gather foods that are nutritious and minimise obesity. It also helps that the people are, by and large, contented. The hard evidence of local people's health was no surprise to Dr Saraswati: "I have always known there was something different here because I was dealing with happy people," he said. "I have worked in other Aboriginal communities and you are doing patch-up all the time. You've got craziness, grog-fights. Just trouble." In Alice Springs, 186 miles to the south, there is nightly violence in and around the Aboriginal squats — fearful places in which hundreds of itinerants who have left their remote homelands spend their days drinking and, often, fighting. There is about one murder a month — nearly always involving Aborigines as perpetrators and victims. Joanne Boyle, a 25-year-old nurse, came to work with Utopia's people after spending nine months treating victims of fights and knifings at Alice Springs Hospital. "I am never scared about them yelling or hitting me as I was in Alice Springs," she said. Simon Quilty has just arrived for a three-month stint in Utopia. In Alice Springs, violence was commonplace, and the doctor would tend Aborigines dying of heart, liver and kidney diseases at the age of 30. By the end of his first week in Utopia, Dr Quilty declared: "It's magic out here, mate."
People in Crisis - a summary:Facts & Figures about Aborigines at the start of the 21st century.
Life expectancy for Aboriginal men is 59, but 77 for all Australian men. For Aborigines aged at least 55, compared with all the Australian population: Poor overall health suffered by 55 per cent of Aborigines, 28 per cent of all Australians; Asthma sufferers — 20 per cent of Aborigines; 10 per cent of all Australians Hypertensive diseases — 43 per cent of Aborigines; 32 per cent of all Diabetes — 35 per cent of Aborigines; 12 per cent of all Australians; Smokers — 38 per cent of Aborigines; 12 per cent of all Australians Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics Government plans: Reduce number of small, remote Aboriginal communities; End restrictions on non-Aboriginal entry to Aboriginal land; Withdraw some schemes for the unemployed